MovieChat Forums > Mary Poppins (1965) Discussion > Anyone else find it a little too long?

Anyone else find it a little too long?


For a family film, nearly two and a half hours is a bit much. Some of the talking scenes could have been trimmed, and the scenes of fox hunting and with uncle albert maybe reduced.

Don't get me wrong, I could stare at and listen to Julie Andrews all day, but watching it recently on bluray surprised me at how long the film is.

Also, why no FAQ on here for this film?

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That's interesting that you feel that way. Personally, I think the movie is one of the few perfect movies out there, so I must disagree. As a kid, I might have found the ending to be a bit boring, which may have made the movie feel a little too long then, but now that I'm older, the end of the movie is my favorite part.

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Nope I must respectfully disagree. While any film can trim dialogue for expediency, for Mary Poppins no conversation in my view becomes superfluous. Despite the fact it's lengthy, I've always considered it to be one of those films which goes by quickly since it's properly organized. To me, the scenes follow in a very logical order, i.e. it makes sense why the next scene is ensconced where it is. None of the songs feel overdone or necessitating a cut. I also feel that, if they condensed the film's scenes, the relationships would not be as fully fleshed out, especially between Mary and the kids

However, you're free to dissent. Different strokes 


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I think, with differing lengths for the studio movies, just like any other studio's, that often they make the films (DUMBO at 64 minutes over 20 years earlier..)

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Yeah, it was too long. I saw it last night on KABC7, and it was three hours long!
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Commercial breaks every 10 minutes can make any movie feel long and exhausting.

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Yes it is too long, but the length itself would not be a problem if all of its scenes were good.

The problem with it being too long is because it contains many scenes that are not worth giving any screen-time to, such as: all of the 15-20 minute, badly-animated cartoon sequence (except for the song at the end of that sequence), the creepy chimney sweep weirdos sequence, the pointless old man on the roof who thinks he is a sailor, the bank scene, etc.

They could have cut all of that out and the film would have been much better.

Or, they could have replaced all those bad scenes with new & different good scenes, and the film also would have been much better.

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BADLY ANIMATED??

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I didn't think it was long as a kid, but watching it on TV (where it was stretched out to 3 hours) I realized how long it is without a lot of plot progress. So it felt a little long in the chalk painting but still enjoyable. Since it was my boyfriend's first time watching it, he was wondering when it got back to real world so I could see it being a bit too long.

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As I've said elsewhere tonight, I watched it the other evening and found myself skipping all the live-action and going straight for the animation ("It's a Jolly Holiday with Mary"). Just put the penguins on an gif.

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I disagree. I think the film is perfect just the way it is.

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It's a nearly perfect film, but the only part that I genuinely think feels rather long, is the animation scenes. They could have been trimmed in half. Apart from that, it really is an incredible film.

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